Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/545

  ;BIOUL TUBL HOLDINGS enough for himself, and his extreme inefilciency. They further contend that his methods are ancient and primitive and are not likely to draw the utmost out of land. If I may indulge in an expression of personal opinion, I think distribution as well as together and perpetuated that production have a condition of faulty methods of combined society in which the ryot had to content himself with s decreas- ing lower standard of life, and those who could not easily pass. off into the conditions of, a lower strata of society and adopt a lower standard of life became indebted and so we have the extraordinary situation that conditions of agricultural society point to the indebtedness of most of the ryots and their inability to ward off times when a temporary scarcity due to the failure of the monsoon may occur. For the purpose of this paper, it is not necessary for me to go into the question as to how far Indian poverty may be a result of the present land rewnue policy of Government. I may at once state that the present condition of our agricultural society can be a great deal improved by carrying out the desirable changes in land holding and the creation of other necessary facilities for successful farming. Beeently I had occasion to visit some of the villages in the South' Arcot and Tanicrc Districts with a view to finding out the attitude of the people towards the various remedial measures suggested and to see how far they would be welcomed by them. My impression is that they do not seem to realise the urgency for any remedial measures to be carried out in connection with land holding, but what they mention to be of far more paramount importance are the supply of more water, a system of agricultural banks by which capital for the cultivation of land may be available at hand uuder easy conditions, and